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Covenant Eyes for Android Update (July 2011)

Back in May we released an alpha (pre-beta) version of our accountability program for Android (which is a plugin for your Firefox browser). Now we are releasing another critical piece of the puzzle: an app that monitors Internet activity on your stock browser.

Interested in helping us test the new app? Go to CovenantEyes.com/AndroidAlphaSignup.

As we mentioned before, we are building this program from the ground up with the help of Covenant Eyes users. The more people who help us test this app and give us feedback, the more we can customize this program to meet your needs.

In the future, we hope the program will have other features such as:

Monitoring the use of other apps (what apps are running, when are they running, and what are their descriptions?)

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@Lucas – Great question. At first glance, I’m going to say no. There are thousands of apps that access the Internet in one way or another each of them have their own peculiarities. We are working on being able to monitor when certain apps are accessed and used (for example, I can know if my partner accessed YouTube at 3a.m. and had it open for one hour, etc.). But we have not developed anything for monitoring the specific uses of each app. I will let you know as things develop further. As the Android platform changes, we change right along with it.

@Lucas – Is this speaking strictly from an accountability standpoint? If so, I can’t say that one has a clear advantage over the other.

If the questions bring hardware into play, the iPhone 5 is still open to a lot of speculation and has no actual announced specs, so it would not be fair to offer any sort of advice based solely on rumors of varying credibility. I personally have a significant iPhone bias, so I’ve avoided giving any sort of hardware recommendations to our customers.

A great deal depends on the type of user you are. Are you technical enough, and willing to navigate the more fragmented, more unintuitive Android landscape for the sake of greater customization or would you be more at home in the more user-friendly, ‘it just works’ walled garden that is the iPhone world?

Good work. I shall download the app and get testing. As for further development – my request is that the two most critical apps to monitor over and above the stock Android browser are: YouTube and the Market Place. Even previewing an app in the Market Place (without installing) should be monitored. But I realise we may have to wait some time for this level of monitoring to be developed.

@Doug – Our app will soon be able to monitor that the Market and/or YouTube apps were used and for how long, but we cannot monitor them at a web address level. We are in the planning stages of adding the ability to passcode lock certain apps on the device, which would provide the ability to block access to these applications.

It is possible, as the Android Operating System evolves, that we could gain the ability to monitor these apps at the URL level, and we would certainly revisit this at that time, but there is nothing currently in the works to make us believe this is on the horizon for the Android system.

The app for the android stock browser has worked extremely well so far. The only thing I have notice is that occasionally when I open the browser or open a new page the covenant eyes sign in screen pops up. It’s not a big deal because you can just hit the return button to get back to the page you were on, but seemed like a glitch nonetheless.

@Dave – Thanks for the comments. I was actually asking for both hardware and accountability capabilities. Your comments help a lot.

@P.U.G – Thanks for the feedback. We’ve actually heard the opposite from several testers – that they were pleased to see that the app restarts if you force close it, but it’s definitely something we look at to make sure it’s happening reliably.

I have also experienced this. To bypass the app, I have to uncheck the “stay signed in” option but be signed in. Then, I can force quit without the chance of covenant eyes prompting me to login. If I don’t do all of this, the app will usually start up again.

Why can you not add support for all the browsers at once. I am a power user with root access. Surely you can monitor everything with root privileges. I need several browsers for testing work stuff and prefer dolphin hd for personal use. Email me please.

We can’t monitor all browsers on the Android at the URL level simply due to the restraints of the operating system. The mechanism to do so simply doesn’t exist. You are correct in your assumption that if users were to root their phones and we were to craft our application specifically for such devices, we could monitor at a much lower level.

So why don’t we develop an application designed for rooted devices?

Only about 3% of our mobile users are using rooted devices: the vast majority of our users really don’t demonstrate the viability of this kind of solution.

We don’t want to put ourselves in the position where we are recommending that our customers root their devices to run our software, thereby voiding warranties and incurring the responsibility for supporting the rooting process and rooted devices.

Finally, there is a bit of a trend against rooting going on in the Android world. Recently, we saw Google block it’s video rental service from rooted devices, and there are lots of rumblings about carriers currently tracking or planning to track rooted devices, for the purposes of blocking or throttling them.

Given those factors, we have made a conscious decision to work within the mobile ecosystems we support to provide the best possible accountability service within the given constraints of those systems.

I certainly appreciate your situation, commend your desire for greater accountability, and sincerely hope that the evolution of the mobile ecosystems will provide us with greater ability to provide excellent accountability service on these platforms.

Hi just downloaded the app. Does signing in/out mean my browser is/isn’t being watched. I’m not getting how it knows who I am if I haven’t signed in. Just want to make sure my reports are actually getting to my accountability partner.

Even though a user of the Android is able to easily sign out, that does not leave them unmonitored. Launching the stock browser (or virtually any app) should bring up the Covenant Eyes Sign In screen for you to re-sign in to browse (similar to the desktop applications where you can also easily sign out, but are not left unmonitored).

@dk – is it possible you may have downloaded and installed the Firefox plugin and not the background application? The application should appear in the applications list with any others you have installed on your device.

Also, if you have the background application, and have signed in, you should see a blue eye icon in the status bar at the top of your screen. If not, most likely you have the Covenant Eyes for Android Firefox plugin and not the Covenant Eyes for Android app. You can download the app at http://www.covenanteyes.com/androidalpha

Ha any testing been done on Android 3.1 (Honeycomb)? I’m considering getting a tablet, but was wondering if there will be any major compatibility issues. Currently using the app on my HTC Evo 3D. Works great although I have noticed the glitch that Lucas mentioned above with the sign in screen occasionally popping up

I understand that you don’t want to restrict your app to root users even if it does make it harder to bypass but why can’t you just have extra features available to root users? You could have the apps run like you have been planning for most users but have an option for those with rooted phones to have extra features only possible through root. A perfect example of an app that does that is ES File Explorer. It works like a normal fie browser for most people but if you are rooted you can edit your /system filder to ttweak your rom. Any reason why something like that wouldn’t be possible?

To do a version that takes advantage of root access wouldn’t merely be taking advantage of greater access through the same systems on the device. It truly would be an entirely new application that would deliver accountability through a completely separate method, interacting directly with the networking stack on the device instead of working through the published APIs that our current development efforts entail.

I don’t see the issue with that. Are you saying that you just would rather focus on getting the standard version ready rather than allocate resources on a root version for a small minority of users essentially? If so, fair enough, but a root version that covers everything would be VERY well-received I’m sure.

With the limited resources we have, we have had to narrow our efforts to meet the needs of the greatest number of our members. Right now, an extremely low percentage of our mobile customers have rooted/jailbroken devices (approx. 3%).

Please see my comment to @Mike S on August 1 above where I answered the question: So why don’t we develop an application designed for rooted devices?

Yeah, I saw that comment; I just wanted a little more clarification. Your comment to him sounded like you didn’t want to make the app ONLY for rooted devices so I wanted to see what you thought about extra features for rooted users or making a second android application for rooted users. I understand about your limited resources, thank you so much for responding.

P.S. Do you think Covenant Eyes would consider making a root version sometime down the line once the standard Android version is done if you have available resources? Obviously what you say here isn’t binding or anything but would that be possible?

How do you come to that percentage? Does the app report back, was there a poll, or was it noted by users when they signed up? I signed up using android 2.3.4, but I may root it in the future. I would almost certainly root it if you were develop a more in depth app. I think it would be interesting to see how many users would be more likely to root if that were made.

@Craig – I believe so, yes. If it is the default browser that came with your phone, then it is the “stock browser.” We don’t call it the default browser because some people have set up other browsers as their default browser, and CE doesn’t monitor the web addresses on those.

@John – I highly doubt that we would ever make an application for rooted devices, primarily due to the support and liability issues I mentioned in previous comments.

@zachary – we do gather some anonymized analytics on usage of our mobile apps so that we can better direct our development efforts, much like web development relies on Google Analytics and similar packages to help guide development to better serve their web users and that percentage is based on that.

Thanks so much for this. It seems to work very well on Asus EEE tablet with Android 3.2, Google Chrome, etc.. Not sure what it does, but the eye is in the toolbar and that’s good enough for me. During installation there was a problem with the signin page in that the ‘submit’ button wouldn’t come up to allow for signin, and nothing else on the tablet was accessible – couldn’t even get into the setup menus to resetthe tablet to factory settings. After repeated tries (at least a dozen) the submit button appeared, but wasn’t very responsive, it took at least a dozen tries before it moved on. Once it moved beyond this point, it has consistently been working just fine through startup, shut down, etc. Thanks again for working on this.

Once you’ve downloaded the app, you should be able to pull down your notifications and see one that says ‘CovenantEyesAndroid.apk Download Complete’. Simply tap on that notification to begin the install. If you have already cleared your notifications without installing, you can always re-download, or if you have the Downloads app in you application list, you can find the file in there and tap on it to begin the download.

I’ve installed the app now twice, but each time I try to sign in, it says “failed to sign in.” i’ve checked and double-checked that I’m entering in the right login info and password. the same username and password allow to sign in here on my computer. and then, since I can’t sign-in, it basically locks down the phone since I’m not signed-in. when I restart my phone, it’ll let me uninstall the app.

About the only thing that can cause you to receive that response is a username/ password issue. Just to confirm, please make sure you are using a username/password combo that uses our accountability service and not a partner username/password combo.

I downloaded the app fro my Toshiba Thrive but I cannot access anything now. It will not let me uninstall the app or log into Covenant Eyes. Is there a way to uninstall the app or log into it so I am able to use my tablet? I cannot use any applications without logging into Covenant Eyes. I am able to get a username and password screen but there is no submit button. Any help would be appreciated.

I had the same problem on my Asus Eee Transformer. It’s still there, but just doesn’t show up. Just below the password field on the right there is the top of the login button. Click there and it should sign in.

On my Samsung Infuse (just purchased a month ago)
which has an Android operating system and a touch
screen I can’t log in because while a keyboard appears
that allows me to enter my uzername it fails to show
up to allow me to enter my password. What can be
done to get around this? I can’t log on using my smart
phone.

Got a HTC desire hd and it does not restart if im signed in and force close. Have to open the app again. Of course this shouldnt be a problem if people are committed, but it would be great to get around it.

Question, how does the mobile report mesh with my pc report? Or does it all just combine?

Through some fault of my own covenant eyes pops up saying I have started an uninstall and wants a code. There seems to be no way to cancel the uninstall from said window. Stock browser, Droid2, Verizon, version 2.3.3

I’ve been a CE users for many years and look forward to the Android solution you’re creating. Do you have a solution that would restrict a user from adding another browser that is not monitored? With Android, a user can simply log in to the Android marketplace from any web access point, and have an app ( e.g. dolphin) sent to his/her Android device. The ability to send an unmonitored browser ( unmonitored at the url level, not just that it was installed) to an Android device poses an accountability problem. Thanks for what you do. It makes the world a better place.

We don’t have a solution that will prevent the installation of an unmonitored browser, but we do report which apps are used on a device on the Accountability Report. That way, the Accountability Partner can at least see that the user is using an unmonitored browser and use that information to fuel a conversation.

Thanks so much for the response. It’s nice that a partner will see that an unmonitored app is being utilized. Obviously, though, the ideal would be for any web activity to be transparent at the url level.

Do you think that’ll be ever be a possibility? Again, thanks so much for your willingness to respond.

@J C – With a lot of mobile technology, third-party developers (like ourselves) don’t have as much access to all inner workings of a phone’s system, and this includes limits of how we interact with other third-party apps. Android has allowed us more access than, say, the iPhone, but it is still unclear the options that could be open to us in the future.

Could you please post somewhere a constantly updating description of exactly WHAT each of the Android product does. I just downloaded the recent versions from the download page. The last time I downloaded you didn’t have the Android App finished (you just had the Firefox plugin). I tried figuring out what it does, but couldn’t find a good description of what it does – how it works – how to use it – what it monitors and reports. There are bits & pieces in various narrative & comment posts or replies, but that was all I found.

Suggest: Add to the download page (for both the Android App & Firefox plugin)
1. Current Features & Benefits
2. How to use current version
3. Statement of current version number & date of release

Dave,
I had no idea the app was updated. I am still running the original version. Is there anyway to receive some kind of notification through email every time the app is updated? I imagine the new app is much better than the original that I am running.

@Glenn – While the app is still in testing, initial tests have indicated it will work on the Kindle Fire. We are still looking into it to make sure, but some of the testers are saying it works for them.

I download the app for my Android Samsung Moment phone. It downloaded perfectly, it’s under my application list and the little eye is even at the top of the screen.

But I go to put in my username and password and it won’t let me sign in. I hit “sign in” and it just stays on the sign in screen. It does recognize that I’m a user, because I put in a fake username and it said “user name not recognized” So I know that it sees that I’m a user, though it just won’t let me sign in…..anyone else having this problem? What can I do?

I downloaded this app on my droid bionic and it was working great for two weeks then all of a sudden it started force closing all the time and popping up with the screen saying it was already signed in. I reinstalled it and it seems to be working ok now but wanted to report it. How can you tell what version you have? Thanks!

@Kyle – You can tell what version you have by going to Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> Covenant Eyes. The version number should be listed on that screen. It should be either 0.2.1 (our alpha release) or 0.4.2 (our beta release), as those are the only versions we have released so far.

Has anyone determined if the beta release works on the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0? Thinking about buying one. So far the CE app has been great on my Droid (though it does sign in and out an awful lot–I can live with that though).

My accountability report has been indicating no internet usage while I was away over Christmas (and warning that this could be a sign of circumvention). My laptop was at home but I was using my android phone and stock browser to book travel, send emails, online shopping, price comparison, ebay etc quite a lot. I am concerned that my android browsing is not showing up on my report. I would have thought that it should be? HAve I misunderstood how the android app works?
PS I am getting regular crashes/force starts on my Galaxy S2, but the CE splash screen always comes up again the next time I surf to a new page.

I am a covenanteyes user who is really looking forward to having this available for the Kindle Fire I got for Christmas. Thankfully I have a really good accountability partner, but please let us know when it is ready!

How can my accountability partner tell what apps I am using? I have the beta version on my phone, but when I look at my accountability reports it does not appear to be tracking my phone. Any word on when it will be out of beta? Thanks!

running CE for Android on my husband’s HTC Thunderbolt, having battery drain issues. Advanced Task Killer is killing all other apps that aren’t wanted to run, but there is a huge drop in battery less than half way through the day.

Also, as far as the detailed browsing log in the accountability report goes, is there a way to differentiate what was accessed via the desktop vs. the smartphone?

thanks for working on this, y’all have and continue to help so many people who are struggling with these issues.

one thing I don’t get is what is the point of signing into CE on my phone if I am monitored either way?

I can also see that when I am signed out, and then try to view a web page, the CE sign up screen comes up. When I then hit the back button, I am viewing the web page I was trying to access before the CE sign in screen came up.

Only 2% seems to be attributed to CE but is there some display bug? My phone looks to have been “awake” with the display on for a few hours solid when I wasn’t using it. This aligns with randomly finding my screen on several times when I pulled my phone out of its holder…

Have also noted several quick signing-in-then-signing-out events, and I think all of them were during a transition from a google search to the stock browser.

I just uninstalled the 0.4.2 off of my HTC Amaze android after a couple of weeks of flawless use. It suddenly today went haywire and the sign-in page kept popping up so persistently I could barely even answer my phone.

Greg,
What I’ve done in the past is do a half-uninstall, or complete reinstall, and it seems to fix the very frequent sign-in page popup.

What I mean by a half-uninstall, is that you do the uninstall of the application itself, but when you go to the browser, it tells you to enter the uninstall code. Instead of doing that, I just reinstall the app. It seems to help.

@Chance – There have been a number of changes!
1. We fixed screen layout. On some devices users could not see certain buttons within the app.
2. Some of our users were seeing a black screen pop up intermittently. We were able to take that away.
3. We plugged some holes to prevent potential circumvention.
4. There were some special characters in the names of apps that we’re being read properly. We fixed this so the apps appear on the report.
5. Now you have to install the Covenant Eyes app, then sign in to Covenant Eyes, and then install the “Covenant Eyes Helper” app. This is a different order from what we were doing before which was causing people who don’t have Covenant Eyes accounts lock up their phones accidentally.

I know you’re incredibly busy, but are there any plans to try to get a plugin for the dolphin HD browser? I love covenant eyes, but miss the AWESOME functionality of the dolphin browser on my samsung galaxyS… small price to pay for becoming pure, but would be nice to have my cake and eat it too! :)

A great product like CE, which so many depend on, needs to not only keep up with the ever-changing digital age, but to also maintain an edge on the market. Developers must work to anticipate changes in the market rather than to play catch up.

It is essential for CE to be available across all platforms.

My aim is not to be condescending but to point out the extreme urgency of the situation, specifically on behalf of those who will continue to fall through the cracks of an otherwise wonderful system.

I’ve noticed that many people are treating Covenant Eyes like our purity depends on them… It doesn’t. CE, like any other company, is one with limited resources. Don’t adopt a type of mobile technology and beg CE to quickly support it as if our Christian walk depends on it. Living a life of purity demands sacrifices, and we are blessed that there is a company like CE so that fewer sacrifices are necessary. I’m just happy CE currently supports the two largest mobile platforms.

@Chance – Thanks for your comment. I agree. I know for a lot of people they are given devices for their work and have little say as to what that device is, which can put them in a bind. Overall, however, what I see Covenant Eyes doing is helping people establish a pattern of accountability in people’s lives. I know many people who have built up great habits of accountability online and when they come across an unmonitored device, they still choose to be transparent and honest with their accountability partner if there is a temptation.

The covenant eyes works well on my android phone. However it fails to report anything from my kindle fire. Is anyonelse having this problem? I have found nothing that works well on my fire except progrmS that require a different browser. Does ce work for anyone with a kindle fire or is there a part of setup I am doing wrong…?

@Sam – While our app does install and run on the Kindle Fire, it is not fully compatible with the device. It can report on which applications were used, but it cannot see any web traffic being generated through the browser.

The main reason for this is that while the Kindle Fire is an Android Tablet, it also isn’t. It has been heavily customized and has had the stock Android browser replaced the custom Amazon Silk browser – this means the interfaces provided to us in Android to interact with the activities of the browser don’t exist on the Fire. We do continue to look for ways to bring full compatibility to the Kindle Fire in our Android application but we don’t have any sort of timeline on that just yet.

@Adam – Not right now, no. The way the Android platform is designed more or less prohibits us from monitoring these kind of things. In the final release we will be adding a module to the Accountability Reports that shows the apps that were accessed, along with the days and amounts of time they were used. But as far as what each app was used for, we don’t have access to that information. We hope this will give Accountability Partners enough information to have a conversation.

Hey! I got covenant eyes on my Android phone last year, and now I’m getting it on my tablet. However, the link won’t open up for me to download it. Is there an alternate way to get it, or is it down for maintenance?

It is not just the issue between stock vs. other browsers, but many apps allow browsing from within the app. For instance, some help pages of the app may open a browser within the app to view them. Once you are in that browser, one can follow links to access Google, and from there the whole Internet is open just from within that app.

How can Covenant Eyes monitor all the ways in which one can reach the Internet on an Android phone? There is no point in monitoring the stock browser if most apps installed on the phone allow one to reach the Internet unmonitored. The apps themselves may be benign, but the browser contained within the app is not.

I strongly support providing a rooted Android version that monitors all Internet traffic, coming from all apps and browsers. Android is the only phone operating system on the market on which such solution is possible — Covenant Eyes members don’t have other phone options on the market (iPhone is susceptible to the same attack).

@Adrian – I completely understand why people would want a rooted version. We’ve talked a lot about these things in-house and we’re working through the details. We don’t want to encourage people to void their warranties. I know some of the users have used our app in conjunction with other apps like Protector. This app locks down other apps behind a password. These users let their accountability partner set the password for them, and then they lock down every app with browsing capabilities (or the ones that are the most tempting).

Might you consider the ability to block certain apps at certain times ? After all, its at night that Im going to be tempted by youtube. During the day, if I use it, it would likely be for a Christian broadcast.

First, thank you Luke and Dave (and the rest of the team!) for putting so much time and effort into making the CE appear better and applicable to the ever-changing technology! As an engineer who has had a tiny taste of programming, I know it’s a ton of work! So thank you and may the Lord continue to bless your work.

Second, perhaps I just missed it up there, but do y’all know about the timeframe when the newer version may be coming out that will keep track of what apps have been used and when?

Actually, the version we have currently available for download, will monitor what apps have been used and for how long. It’s beta version 0.6.5, and you can find it at http://www.covenanteyes.com/androidbeta

Please uninstall any previous test version you may be running before installing the latest version.

Thank you for the response. I hope that you can develop coveys to be compatible with the silk browser. With the fire selling rapidly at 199.00 it would be a great market for a filter/accountability program that doesn’t force the user to use a different browser. Thank you

I am using the chrome browser for android. my accountability reports keep reporting no activity, so im assuming thats because i am not using stock browser. can you add suport for chrome as it is likely to become androids stock browser with the jelly bean release anyway?

@jacobburk – You assume right. We do not monitor chrome currently. Android’s system doesn’t take kindly to us trying to do that, but we are continually looking for ways to improve our reporting on mobile devices. Thanks for your thoughts on this!

I’m afraid I have to repeat the battery issue as well. Phone won’t even make it through one day on one charge without moderate use. (Galaxy S2 phone)
I love the software, but hope it’s load on the battery can be solved somehow.

I installed CE on my new LG Lucid. As far as the speed goes, couldn’t even tell it was there. No drop in speed or usability at all.

However, the battery drain was tremendous. I could not make it to work and back home without recharging my phone. The control panel reported that CE was using over 30% of the battery. I had to uninstall it to get through the day.

CE repeadteldy causes my Acer iconia tablet to shut down every time it goes to sleep. So when I go to turn it back on, I have to wait for a complete reboot. It is running android ics, but it was doing this on honeycomb as well. Have any others faced this as well? This is a huge issue because it makes my tablet pretty much uses less, but my wife insists that I have it installed.

Do you have WiFi set to turn off when your tablet goes to sleep? What I’ve noticed is that with my phone, turning on/off WiFi and/or Mobile Data frequently tends to lock up CE and therefore the phone. I so, I would set it to leave it running even while sleeping.

Yes. Some low/no connectivity situations do weird things with our app. This is one of the fixes in the next test version of our app: this is the same fix that will also help people with Internet hotspots.

I too would love a version that could monitor all connections on my rooted device, so many of us wont even buy an android device unless it can be rooted, a special root version would be amazing. While it may void the warranty, it is not illegal, so why not support it.

I’ve been using the app for two weeks now but my browser of choice is chrome on my nexus. One thing I noticed just now is that while using the default Browser brings me to the CE login page if I am logged off, it allows me to use other apps, such as chrome, without the login screen. I’m glad the apps I use are at least reported for time use and ABC levels. It does seem though, that it doesn’t track every use of the app, because I think I used some more than it said on my report.

Power usage wise, it’s been fine overall, not a battery hog like other people have been saying. It takes up around 8% of the charge, on a low/moderate internet use.